Kimbra Debuts “Love In High Places” & “Nobody But You”: Listen

Kimbra has announced her next album, The Golden Echo, in a big way. An hour after she revealed the cover art and tracklist, fans who pre-ordered the album received three songs in total. One is the previously released “’90s Music,” a distorted and demented pop gem that name-checks Nirvana, Aaliyah and Mariah Carey. But the other songs, the previously unheard “Love In High Places” and “Nobody But You,” reveal that she’s been listening to way more ’90s music than that.

In “Love in High Places,” Kimbra’s languorous vocals immediately recall that of Erykah Badu; they coast above ramshackle instrumentation – hand claps, darting synths and spastic guitars – that threatens to fall apart but, miraculously, doesn’t. Meanwhile, “Nobody But You” inspires Kimbra to coo as if part of a Motown line-up, although fat synths, a bloated bass and a marching breakdown hints that she’s been listening to Jamiroquai too. In both, Kimbra sounds as if she’s rediscovered the already-ambitious neo-soul, then gleefully tinkered with its elements until she found combinations that she could call her own.

And if those songs are any indication, then Kimbra’s The Golden Echo could be one of 2014’s biggest releases. Listen to “Love in High Places” and “Nobody But You” after the jump.